Daniel Pearl

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The apparent back-to-back murders of two American freelance journalists by the same group are unprecedented in CPJ's history. The beheadings on camera in a two-week period of first James Foley and then Steven Sotloff appear to be an acceleration of a pattern--dating at least to Daniel Pearl's killing in 2002--of criminal and insurgent groups displaying the murders of journalists to send a broad message of terror.

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New
York, March 3, 2014--A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted six defendants for their
roles in the murder of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV
journalist who was shot dead in Karachi in January
2011, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes
the convictions--the first
in the murder of a Pakistani journalist--but calls on authorities to ensure
the masterminds are brought to justice.

Two murdered journalists for the
Africa service of Radio France Internationale, Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude
Verlon, 58, might have had a chance. They were abducted on November 2 in Kidal
in northern Mali, but the vehicle their captors were driving suddenly broke
down, according to news
reports.

When Mick Deane was killed in Egypt on Wednesday, he became the 1,000th journalist documented by CPJ as having died in direct relation to his work. The photos above, a sampling of those who have died over the past 21 years, serve as a powerful reminder of the cost of critical, independent journalism.

New
York, March 18, 2013--Pakistani authorities announced today that they have
apprehended a militant who was allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl in Karachi, according to news reports.

"As with every journalist murder, any and all perpetrators in the slaying of Daniel Pearl must be prosecuted and punished," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. "In order to curb growing impunity in Pakistan, it is imperative that authorities send the strongest possible signal that acts of anti-press violence will not go unpunished."

At any given time over the past two years, as wars raged in
Libya and then Syria, and as other conflicts ground on in South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa, a number of journalists have been held captive by a diverse array of forces,
from militants and rebels to criminals and paramilitaries. And at any given
time, a small handful of these cases--sometimes one or two, sometimes
more--have been purposely kept out of the news media. That is true today.

Amid political
tumult in Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and a team
of six ministers are in London for far-ranging meetings today through May 13. The
Pakistan-U.K. Enhanced Strategic Dialogue will review education, health, defense,
security, and cultural cooperation. CPJ has written a letter
to Prime Minister David Cameron to urge that press freedom conditions be raised
as well.

In case there was any doubt about the stance of Pakistani
authorities on the murder of journalists, UNESCO's 28th
biennial session offered an instructive insight. In addition to discussing
the U.N.
Draft Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity
during the meeting, held in Paris in March, member states were to report on
judicial inquiries into the killings of journalists from 2006 to 2009. Pakistan
was among 17 countries that did not respond to the request. It was also one of
three countries that refused to discuss the UNESCO draft, intended to take legislative
measures to combat attacks on the press. This was a reflection of our sad state
of affairs.

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New York, May 31,
2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed and angered by the
targeted killing of senior Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistan
bureau chief of the Asia Times online
website. Shahzad, considered an expert on Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants,
disappeared on Sunday night as he was on his way to participate in a talk show
on Dunya Television, media reports said. His body, showing
signs of torture, was later found outside Islamabad, according to local and
international media reports.